Damascus car bombing kills at least 15

A highly destructive car bombing in Damascus's bustling Sabaa Bahrat Square has killed at least 15 people and wounded at least 53 more, in an attack that has yet to be credited to a specific group.

The bomb seems to have exploded inside the parking lot of Syria's Central Bank, wrote the New York Times, damaging office buildings and destroying cars in the busy area, which is near a secondary school.

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“People were just sitting here working and doing their daily life, and suddenly this happened,” a shopkeeper told the New York Times of the incident.

"Does this please God, does this please anyone. Look what they have done to the area, look what they did to the street," said one witness to the Los Angeles Times.

It's estimated that 70,000 have perished since March 2011 in the bloody, grinding Syrian civil war. The war is drawing closer to Assad's seat of power in Damascus, and more residents of the capital city have become affected by the violence.

The bombing comes as United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon announced investigators were ready to deploy to Syria to investigate allegations of chemical attacks, although consent from Assad's Syrian government has yet to be granted.